PRACTICE AREAS

HIGHLIGHTS

Sheryn was admitted as a legal practitioner of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia, in 2005. She is a door tenant at 7th Floor Wentworth Selborne Chambers in Sydney.

Overview

Sheryn specialises in all aspects of Employment and Discrimination Law, including employment status, territorial jurisdiction and whistleblowing, as well as Human Rights and Public Law, International Criminal Law, and Clinical Negligence Law. Sheryn is instructed to appear at all levels of the Tribunal and Court structure, including the Employment Tribunal, EAT, County Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

Sheryn is currently instructed (together with Jason Galbraith-Marten QC) on behalf of the Claimant Uber drivers in the employment status case of Aslam & Ors v Uber BV and Ors [2018] ICR 453.

Sheryn was counsel for the respondent-employer in Barton v Royal Borough of Greenwich UKEAT/0041/14/DXA, the most recent whistleblowing case to consider the definition of a 'protected disclosure' in the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Sheryn appeared for the Respondent (led by Jason Galbraith-Marten QC) in the Employment/Human Rights case of Turner v East Midlands Trains [2013] ICR 525 in which the Court of Appeal held, consistently with the Respondent's case, that the range of reasonable responses test applicable to cases of alleged unfair dismissal complies with the UK's obligations pursuant to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In early 2015, Sheryn spent 3 months working in the Prosecution Division of Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, principally on the case of Prosecutor v Al Faqi Al Mahdi. This was the first prosecution for the war crime of destruction of cultural property and the first occasion upon which a defendant offered to plead guilty before the ICC in the history of that court.

In relation to her Human Rights and Public Law work, Sheryn has acted for one hundred Armenian workers in a case pending before the European Court of Human Rights. She has also been instructed in judicial review proceedings challenging decisions of a Magistrates' and Crown Court to prolong the Claimant's detention without charge pursuant to s.152 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, in proceedings challenging the age discriminatory aspects of the IVF Policy of a Clinical Commissioning Group and in proceedings challenging decisions of the Home Secretary affecting two Claimants on death row in Arkansas and Pakistan respectively (led by Judith Farbey QC of Doughty Street Chambers).

She is currently instucted on behalf of Welsh MP, Jack Sargeant AM (led by Leslie Thomas QC) in the Independent Investigation into the actions of the Welsh First Minister in the lead-up to the death of the late Carl Sargeant AM.

Sheryn was also instructed on the multi-claimant personal injury litigation arising from the outbreak of E coli 0157 at Godstone Farm in 2009 (led by Frank Burton QC and William Latimer-Sayer QC).

In Australia, Sheryn was judicial assistant to the Honourable Justice Margaret Beazley AO, President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal and first woman to be appointed to that Court. Following this, Sheryn worked for and advised the Coalition of New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Services, the peak body representing the interests of the six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services in New South Wales (ATSILS). Sheryn also published extensively, drawing attention to the discriminatory practices of police and courts in relation to Aboriginal Australians.

After the fusion of the six ATSILS, Sheryn worked as a criminal defence solicitor (advocate) and appeared in the Local, Children's, District and Supreme Courts of New South Wales on behalf of Aboriginal clients charged with all manner of criminal offence.

Sheryn was invited to the UK to work at Doughty Street Chambers where she became researcher to Richard Hermer QC in his capacity as head of the International Law Team. Later Sheryn worked for Leigh Day & Co Solicitors, specialising in product liability and was involved in multi-claimant actions with an international dimension.

In addition to her diverse experience in the law, Sheryn is fluent in French and Farsi, having won a scholarship to study at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques ('Sciences Po') in Paris where she was first in International Relations. Sheryn was subsequently awarded the University of Sydney University Medal for her thesis concerning the history and contemporary manifestations of the nationalist movement in Corsica.

Awards

Pegasus Scholarship, Inner Temple (2015)

Bar Council International Legal and Professional Development Grants Programme grant (2013) to attend the International Bar Association Annual Conference, Boston, Massachusetts

References

"I just wanted to thank you for your support to me and [the client] at and before the hearing yesterday. I have been very impressed by the excellent service you have provided in assisting me with dealing with what has been a very demanding and frustrating [opponent] as well as your expert handling of the advocacy and the witnesses!" - instructing solicitor

"Sheryn, you have been a pillar of strength. Your sweet and likeable character hides a grizzly bear that you save for the courtroom. The amount of effort and hours you put into preparing for this case is obvious and I will be forever in your debt." - lay client

"If she has a legal point she is like a dog with a bone" - Chambers & Partners

Appointments and memberships

7th Floor Wentworth Selborne Chambers - Door Tenant

ALAW, Editorial Board of ALAW Journal

Anglo-Australasian Lawyers Society, past member

Bar Council, International Committee Executive, past member

Bar Human Rights Committee, member

British Institute of International and Comparative Law, member

Employment Lawyers Association, member

Industrial Law Society, member

International Bar Association, member

New South Wales Bar Association, Human Rights Committee, past member

Personal Injury Bar Association, member

Police Action Lawyers' Group, member

Young Public Lawyers' Group, member

Publications and training

TRAINING

Sheryn was invited by the IBA's War Crimes Committee to speak at its International Law Conference in The Hague in April 2018 on the subject of the ICC's activation of its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression

Sheryn was invited by the IBA's Human Rights Law Committee to speak at the IBA's Annual Conference in Sydney in October 2017 on the subject of 'Race and refugee issues in Australia: are policies of separation and detention working?'